This invention relates to a milk-based powder that may be reconstituted to provide a milk-based nutritional composition for pets and especially for young pets.
Many pet owners, especially owners of young pets, feed cow""s milk or cow""s milk based compositions to their pets since cow""s milk is an excellent source of nutrition. Further, in cases where very young pets are unable to obtain milk from their mothers, cow""s milk or compositions based upon cow""s milk may be the only source of nutrition for the young animal.
Unfortunately, the feeding of cow""s milk to pet mammals may result in gastrointestinal intolerance. This manifests itself in a variety of intestinal symptoms which include bloating, distension, cramp, flatulence, lower faecal consistency and, in severe cases, diarrhoea. Lower faecal consistency and diarrhoea are particularly well known symptoms (Mundt, H-C. and Meyer, H.; 1989, Waltham Symposium 7: Nutrition of the Dog and Cat, Cambridge University Press, pages 267-274). The cause of the gastrointestinal intolerance is attributed to the lactose in cow""s milk.
Removal of lactose from cow""s milk for human applications is well known. This is usually done by micro- or ultra-filtration or enzymatic treatment, or both, of liquid milk or whey solutions. Further, milk or whey powders which are low in lactose, or lactose free, are commercially available and may be fed to pets, but these powders are generally too expensive for commercial use in pet products. For pets, a possible solution to the problem is described in European patent application 0259713. Here the lactose in the composition is reduced by reducing the content of milk powder in the composition to below about 60% by weight. In order to make up for the reduction in protein, lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk proteins are then added to the composition. In this way, the lactose content of the composition may be reduced to below about 30% by weight, but this requires the addition of large amounts of lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk proteins which increases the cost.
Mundt and Meyer (supra) suggest that another solution to this problem is to hydrolyze the lactose using enzymes prior to producing the pet milk powder. This is an acceptable solution when milk is freely and inexpensively available in liquid form, but it is not a feasible solution when the milk ingredient is available in powdered form; which is commonly the case.
Therefore there is still a need for a cow""s milk-based powder which may be reconstituted to provide a milk-based nutritional composition, which is relatively simple to prepare and relatively inexpensive.
Accordingly, in one aspect, this invention provides a pet milk powder comprising a cow""s milk powder which contains lactose, and a lactase.
It is surprisingly found that the simple addition of lactase to milk powder is able to avoid or significantly reduce the gastrointestinal problems associated with the consumption of lactose. This is despite the fact that the milk composition produced by reconstituting the milk powder may be consumed immediately after reconstitution; that is before the lactase has had the time to degrade the lactose in the milk powder.
Preferably, the lactase is a xcex2-galactosidase; more preferably one from micro-organism origin. A xcex2-galactosidase which is active at an acidic pH is particularly preferred.
The milk powder may further comprise one or more of a lipid source, protein source, vitamins and minerals.
In another aspect, this invention provides a milk powder for cats, the powder comprising a cow""s milk powder which contains lactose, a lactase, taurine, arginine and choline.
In a yet further aspect, this invention provides a milk powder for dogs, the powder comprising a cow""s milk powder which contains lactose, a lactase, and choline.
In a further aspect, this invention provides a method for reducing the symptoms of gastrointestinal intolerance in a mammalian pet after consumption of a nutritional composition based on cow""s milk, the method comprising administering to the pet an effective amount of a lactase in combination with the nutritional composition.